Category: Education

Ocean City 5th Graders Adopt a Bald Eagle….

Posted on by larissasmith
…and learn about threatened and endangered species.

by Larissa Smith; Biologist/Volunteer Manager

For the second year in a row  5th graders at the Ocean City Intermediate school adopted a species from the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ.   The 40 students are in two of  science teacher Mrs. Rosander’s  classes. They earned the money through chores and donations to adopt the Bald Eagle.  This year they chose to adopt a bald eagle which is one of the species that I work with so I was glad for the opportunity to talk about NJ eagles.

Students learned about threatened and endangered species as well as the NJ bald eagle project. The students asked a lot of great questions and I’m pretty sure they’ll now be on the look out for eagles!

Thank you to the students for their donation to CWF!

 

Exciting Programs In State Parks This Summer!

Posted on by CWF
Birding by Kayak on Barnegat Bay, surf fishing off Island Beach, night hikes, and more…

CWF is excited to partner with NJ State Parks and offer incredible programs about New Jersey’s natural world.  Programs are taking place at both Island Beach State Park and Allaire State Park.

Become a WILDCHILD, take a sunset kayak tour, try your hand at surf-fishing, go bird watching, or discover the night. Whatever you decide, you will be guided by professional educators and naturalists who have plenty of natural and wildlife stories to share with you.

At nearly 10 miles long, Island Beach is New Jersey’s most expansive stretch of undeveloped barrier island.  Our programs help you to connect with the beauty of this ecosystem and its ample natural resources.  Have your kids participate in a WILDCHILD program including surfing, surf-fishing, and island exploration. Try and catch the big one during a surf-fishing class or discover the beauty of Barnegat Bay through kayaking.

Allaire State Park covers almost 3,000 acres within the coastal plain of New Jersey.  An extension of the Pine Barrens, Allaire has sandy soils and forests of oak, cedar, and pine.  The Manasquan River flows through the park, creating floodplain that serves as habitat for many species of wildlife, including the barred owl, wood turtle, and bald eagle.  Discover moths, take a quiet bird walk, or splash around in the pond and stream during one of our summer programs.

For more information, visit CWF’s Parks Programs section on our website.

New Children’s Book Focused on Turtles

Posted on by CWF
Written by Donna M. Zappala

What Kind of Turtle Am I?  is written by Donna M. Zappala.  She is a native of New Jersey.  Donna spent many years  teaching preschool and kindergarten.   While teaching students in the early grades, Donna would begin planning her lessons with a trip to the library to find children’s books that would enhance the topic she planned to teach. Often times, she became frustrated, not finding the best book to suit her lesson. So, now she is creating those stories she knows teachers will find useful, informative and enjoyable for themselves as well as their students.

What Kind of Turtle Am I? is Donna’s second children’s book and discusses the differences between turtles, tortoises and terrapins.  It is the story of a turtle named Izzy who goes on a search to figure out what kind of turtle she is.  She stops and asks many animals along the way and discovers, little by little, some amazing facts about herself.  In the end, Izzy realizes that she is a diamondback terrapin and her search is over as she finds other diamondback terrapins to spend time with basking in the sun.

Donna enjoys visiting schools and reading to children.   Please visit her website for more information, to purchase her books, upcoming events, and news.

Attention Young Birders!

Posted on by CWF

The New Jersey Young Birders Club seeks youngsters who share their love of all things feathered. 

By Nathaniel Hernandez, Great Meadows, NJ

CWF is happy to turn over the blog to Nathaniel to promote this new groups efforts to learn more about NJ’s incredible biodiversity.

Harlequin Ducks (c) David Tattoni

New Jersey may be known as a state with the most people per square mile in the US, but it also ranks an incredible 12th  place for bird diversity. It holds some of the most important migration points in the Eastern US. Places such as Cape May, Barnegat Bay, Old Mine Road in Warren and Sussex Counties, and other hotspots make this one of the best states for birding. It also hosts the famous World Series of Birding, where hundreds of birders come from around the world for the Garden State’s diverse birds.

Unfortunately, the young birders scattered throughout this birdy state have not united into an organized group that will help in raising New Jersey’s next generation of birders and ornithologists.  The newly formed New Jersey Young Birders Club wishes to change that.  Our club has trips all over the state and has interactive meetings to help its members learn more about birds and conservation.

To learn more about our club, including our events, please visit njyoungbirders.weebly.com

 

 

Camden Students Learn About New Jersey’s Rare Wildlife

Posted on by CWF

by Maria Grace, Education & Outreach Manager

Recently, I visited the 4th and 5th graders at ECO Charter School in Camden, NJ.  With plenty of wildlife specimens in hand, I talked to the students about NJ’s rare wildlife and why it is important to protect it.  I had fun interacting with these kids and they asked plenty of really good questions like “What does DDT stand for?” and “What do peregrine falcons eat?”.  I gave them a homework assignment – to share their newly discovered knowledge with their friends and family members, one of the most important things in protecting wildlife.  An easy lift, since each of these students participated in the Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest and learned about one of NJ’s rare wildlife residents.

ECO Charter School 5th graders and their vibrant entries for the Species on the Edge Contest

Subaru of America generously sponsored the Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest and specifically, they supported its expansion and promotion in Camden County, which notoriously had low participation.  Without Subaru’s support, I may not have been able to visit ECO Charter School and the students may not have found out about the contest nor chose to enter.  These students now have a better understand of the wildlife that shares our state with us.

CWF would like to thank all the sponsors of the Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest:

PSEG, Church & Dwight, NJEA, Subaru of America, Verizon, and ShopRite.

Photo From The Office

Posted on by CWF

February 10, 2012

By Maria Grace, Education & Outreach Manager

Maria begins sorting and organizing the entries for the Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest

Entries for the Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest have been arriving at our office since early January.  The contest ended recently and now the hard work begins.  We need to sort, count, and organize over 2,000 entries and ready them for judgement day.  That job will be done by a biologist, an educator, and an artist, all who generously agreed to volunteer their time to choose the winners.  I don’t envy them since there are so many outstanding entries and the hard work by the students is evident in all of them.  It is refreshing to know that thousands of kids learned about NJ’s rarest wildlife residents through the Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest.  Hopefully, that knowledge will be transferred into actions that help to preserve and protect NJ’s environment.

2012 Rutgers Environmental Stewards Program

Posted on by CWF
Barred Owl (c) Eric Sambol

Interested in the environment? Want to learn from local and regional environmental experts?  Then become a Rutgers Environmental Steward!  There is still room (& time!) to register to become part of the Class of 2012 for the Rutgers Environmental Stewards Program!

The Rutgers Environmental Steward program provides training and experience which equips participants to contribute effectively to the process of finding solutions for environmental problems in the communities of New Jersey.

Graduates become knowledgeable about the basic processes of earth, air, water and biological systems. They increase awareness of the techniques and tools used to monitor and assess the health of the environment. They gain an understanding of the research and regulatory infrastructure of state and federal agencies operating in New Jersey that relate to environmental issues. They are given an introduction to group dynamics and community leadership.

They learn to recognize the elements of sound science and public policy based on that science. They acquire some sense of the limits of current understanding of the environment.

Training takes place regionally – in the northat the Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) of Warren County in South Belvidere; in the center at Duke Farms, Hillsborough; and in the south at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA)  in Egg Harbor Township. 

For more information, a 2012 lecture schedule,  or to register, visit http://www.envirostewards.rutgers.edu/index.htm

Salamanders and…Seattle?

Posted on by CWF
FINDING ANSWERS TO NJ PROBLEMS AT ICOET

By MacKenzie Hall, Private Lands Biologist

Seattle Space Needle
The iconic Space Needle, photographed from the edge of Puget Sound.

Last week – literally moments before Irene began her Garden State smack-down – my plane landed on home ground.  I was returning from six days in Seattle, WA, where more than 550 professionals from 21 countries gathered for the International Conference on Ecology & Transportation (ICOET).  The conference offered over 170 combined talks and posters on a variety of research, planning, ecology, and engineering topics that, by and large, had to do with animals crossing roads.

The reason I made the trip was our Amphibian Crossing project (ok, and it was also Seattle, birthplace of the counter-culture that fashioned my grungy teenagehood!).  Over the last decade we’ve surveyed, mapped, and prioritized hotspots throughout the northern half of NJ where frogs and salamanders have to travel across roads to reach their breeding pools each spring.  Enormous numbers are killed in doing so.  The hallmark of our Amphibian Crossing project has always been the volunteer-based rescue surveys – at night, in the rain, in traffic; requiring a lot of hands and a maniacal level of commitment to plan and carry out year after year.  At this point, we’ve got around 35 “high” and “highest” priority crossings…far too many to manually protect in the short-term, not to mention the long-term.  Our long-term solution is to get special under-road culverts installed for these migrating amphibians, and ICOET was a place I could find folks who have done it. Continue reading “Salamanders and…Seattle?”

Endangered Allegheny Woodrats Need Our Help!

Posted on by CWF
Collect Native Tree Nuts to feed the Woodrats

By Maria Grace, Education & Outreach Manager

 

The last known Allegheny woodrat population lives at the base of the Palisades in northern New Jersey.

The Allegheny woodrat is a state endangered species. It was added to the endangered species list in 1991. There is one remaining population of these small mammals left in the state and they need our help this winter.

This season we are going to help the woodrat by providing it with food. We will distribute acorns, beech nuts, hickory nuts or any other nuts from native New Jersey trees in the area the woodrats live. By providing them with food we will help them survive the winter.

Collecting nuts while learning about the habits and habitat needs of the Allegheny woodrat is a great service learning project! Have your students collect native tree nuts throughout the community and help to protect one of NJ’s rarest wildlife residents.

We are collecting nuts now through October 31, 2011 to distribute to the woodrat’s location throughout the winter. If you would like to contribute to the woodrat’s winter food pantry, please drop off nuts from native New Jersey trees to ENSP’s office in Clinton, New Jersey. Please call Maria Grace at Conserve Wildlife Foundation at (609) 984-0621 for specific instructions. Nuts will be collected until October 31st.

For more information about the Allegheny woodrat, visit CWF’s online field guide.

To read about the 2009 supplemental feeding program, visit the Explorations, February 2010 edition.

Bats, Birds, Boy Scouts, Bobcats, Bog turtles and a Beaver:

Posted on by CWF
MY “THANK YOU” NOTE TO THE CWF

By Erica Fischer, CWF Summer Intern

Holding a big brown bat during a maternity colony survey. Photo by MacKenzie Hall

It’s hard to believe that it has been two months since the start of my internship with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. As a rising senior in college (when did that happen?), I can attest to the fact that time flies. Last December I contacted MacKenzie Hall, a Private Lands Biologist with the CWF and bat expert with a proposition. My college had provided me with a stipend after the completion of a long list of requirements for an unpaid internship. Being an avid wildlife lover, biology student and a resident of New Jersey, the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey seemed like the perfect fit. MacKenzie graciously agreed to take me under her [bat] wing.

On June 1, I jumped right into MacKenzie’s work with the bat population of New Jersey. I was quickly contacting volunteers, designing driving routes and delivering acoustic bat detectors. We were working on assessing the bat population of New Jersey with the use of five brand new acoustic bat detectors split amongst forty volunteers.

 

Continue reading “Bats, Birds, Boy Scouts, Bobcats, Bog turtles and a Beaver:”